The Thunder gets the pleasure of playing the Suns the day after basically half of their rotation was turned over in a pretty massive trade with the Magic. Gone is Earl Clark, Jason Richardson and Hedo Turkoglu. In comes Vince Carter, Mickael Pietrus and Marcin Gortat.

However, all three are inactive for tonight’s game. The Suns recalled Gani Lawal, but still only have eight or nine active bodies to toss out against the Thunder tonight.

Phoenix coming in: The Suns have dropped four of their last five and last played Friday at Dallas.

THE MATCHUPS
The matchups are a bit complicated at this point because of the roster turnover. But we know about Steve Nash and though he’s battling a bit of a back injury, he’s probably to play tonight. Behind him is Goran Dragic, who is absolutely capable of subbing in and playing well for Nash though. However, both aren’t great defenders and Russell Westbrook typically fares well against them.

Hakim Warrick is an athletic inside presence that thrives off of Nash’s pick-and-roll and passing abilities. He’s not Amare Stoudemire, but he’s been okay. Serge Ibaka matches up well with him though. Robin Lopez is a quality big man and Channing Frye can light things up from outside. So OKC’s big guys can’t take the night off by any means.

Grant Hill is a main scoring threat for Phoenix so locking him down with Thabo is a smart bet. Kevin Durant historically has played well against the Suns and their softer defense, so I’d expect a decently solid game from him.

Closing out the homestand is key and this game looked to be the toughest of the four but now should be a bit on the easier side. Doesn’t mean it’s a given by any means, but it’s certainly a good opportunity.

What I don't like about people posting during the game is that they live and breathe every second which encourages a lot of nitpicking and emotional reactions.

Brooks is not the worst coach. He has the team performing well overall. Sure, the team is not consistent and small ball does not work well all the time but overall his results have been good in the key areas.

Grant Hill played like the old Grant Hill when he was still in Detroit. Their pick and roll, and our switches killed this game. And of course, playing like sleep walking for most of the game didn't help neither.I thought this would be a pretty easy win since Suns are missing a few guys but the Thunder just didn't show up at all (except Collison imo)... Thabo was good on offense tonight but couldn't stop/slow down Grant Hill. And what's up with the FT lately!?

@justinSecond year head coach we're talking about here, I'm sure he'll learn quite a bit. I'm not sold either on him just yet either, but there's a lot of basketball to played in the next couple years with his regime and these players. So at this point, I don't know how worth it it is to devote a lot of attention on it.

What's nice, long-term, is that the West is shaping up pretty nicely for us. A lot of the elite teams are getting older. Whereas the East is really building up and getting top heavy. Just over a year ago, I always wished OKC could be in the East. But going forward, I'm much happier to be in the West.

Grant Hill abused smaller defenders all game yet we continually let point guards switch off on him. Instead we let KD waste away in the corner guarding no one and not helping at all. He could have kept Grant Hill from doing everything that he did. Anyone can guard Dudley or Childress they didn't do anything at all.

I don’t think it’s hyperbole. I don’t see us winning anything significant with Scott Brooks as coach unless he learns some more through experience. Hopefully that happens.

this is an entirely different statement than what we were reading during the game. Which I guess is expected once people have a chance to let things sink in.

Anyway, I think my real point is that Brooks is here for the foreseeable future, so what's the point of getting RAGING MAD every time something he does doesn't go your way? Maybe my real point is that I don't understand the concept of people that can't watch a basketball game without RAAAAAAAAAAGING.

@justinI don't disagree with that. I just find this hyperbole after every single loss hysterical/maddening. Do people not watch other basketball games?

There are a lot of bad coaches in the league and Scott Brooks is essentially average as a head coach in his second full-season. We're on pace to dust our win total from last year, and there have been as many games where Brooks has made the right calls and pushed the right buttons as there have been like tonight where he boned us. AKA: Every coach on the planet that's not in the elite stratosphere. Unless you think Phil Jackson or someone like that is coming to OKC, maybe it's time to pump the breaks on the freakouts.

The players aren't completely absolved, no. They played like crap and were unfocused most of the game. Maybe they deserved to lose. But I'd rather lose with our best lineups playing like they are uninterested than not even really give the players a chance down the stretch.

Brooks says he wants stops and defense, yeah maybe the players didn't give him that most of the game, but he basically ensured they wouldn't be able to with that substitution to end it.

@justinI think he's a bad coach too, but we shot 28% tonight in the first half and that's on the players, too. I'm not opposed to getting a new coach in here, but ... who exactly? And I'm being realistic, it's not going to happen this year unless we just completely bomb out. Since we have a better record now than a year ago, I'm going to rule that out.

At the earliest, we're looking at the next-next offseason, and that's also taking into account the fact there may not even be a season next year. So maybe we're looking at three offseasons at the earliest.

We might have won this game with a different coach, we WOULD have won this game if we would have played worth a shit in the first half. Obviously some of that is on Brooks, but most of it is on the players.

While I don't think Brooks is a good head coach, this loss is all on the players. Even when they started hitting some shots in the second half, the defense never tightened up. We handed this win to a bad team because we had no effort on the defensive end.

justin :So who really thinks this team is ever going to win a title with this doufas coaching us?

LOL, one bad loss and justin is cutting his wrists. If we don’t ever win a title, it will be for reasons far beyond just having scott brooks as a coach.

I'm racking my brain but I can't really think of many coaching decisions Brooks has made that have helped the team win games. The only reason we've been able to get our best lineups in the game recently is because our players have been injured. I bet when Krstic comes back he'll start again.

This team has too much talent to lose games like this. If the fans on a blog can see that the Suns scored repeatedly when we went small and it was a bad idea, how can the coach not see that?